FAST NIGHT AT BELLATOR 198

When you have a card of submission artists and two monsters that like to throw hands; what you end up with is a very quick night. That was the case at BELLATOR 198 from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.

FEDOR EMELIANENKO will now face CHAEL SONNEN in the next round of the heavyweight tournament after he made quick work of FRANK MIR. “THE LAST EMPEROR” picked up his 1st Bellator win and 1st win in the States since 2009 via TKO just 48 seconds into the contest. Frank came out wiffing on kicks but landed a right that had Fedor reeling. After a clinch Mir came charging forward; swinging. Fedor angled away and landed a left to Frank’s jaw; dropping him. Emelianenko went down after him and pounded away till referee MIKE BELTRAN stopped it. In the co-main; EMMANUEL SANCHEZ got SAM SICILIA to tap to an arm triangle 3:52 into round 1. Thus possibly setting up a featherweight title shot for himself. Sam; a known banger decided to go with a well rounded approach to this fight. He got Sanchez down but he was able to reverse positions. Emmanuel was able to get Sicilia’s back when they were standing again. That’s when he was able to lock in the submission forcing the tap.

GERALD HARRIS literally came off his couch a couple of days ago to accept the short notice fight vs RAFAEL LOVATO JR. A scramble on the mat is where Lovato loves to be. That’s where he was able to cinch in an arm bar at 1:11 of round 1 for the submission win. JAVIER TORRES and NEIMAN GRACIE had one of the more intense staredowns filled with chirping. Gracie got a quick takedown then looked for another along the cage. He finally got him down again and into top then side control. That pattern continued to play out. After some GNP Neiman looked for some submissions. He eventually locked in a triangle at 3:18 into round 2 that Torres had no choice but to tap. The main card opened up with the much ballyhooed debut of CONOR MCGREGOR teammate DILLON DANIS against KYLE WALKER. All week Dillon has continued to chirp like his dear friend. Despite his BJJ talents; what he’d bring to the cage was unknown. Kyle landed shots early on Danis but when it quickly got taken down Dillon grabbed a hold of Walkers left leg. Dillon wrenched it till Kyle tapped to the toehold at 1:38 into the fight.

SULTAN UMAR picked TOM ANGELOFF apart piece by piece picking up the unanimous decision. ROBERT MORROW did little to pick up a unanimous decision; but ADAM MACIEJEWSKI coming off a 3 1/2 year hiatus did even less as he gassed out early. ADIL BENJILANY morphed himself into Gegard Mousasi as he won by unanimous decision over COREY JACKSON. DAN STITTGEN tapped to a triangle from MARK STODDARD at 4:43 of round 1. ERIC WISELY is now on a 9 fight win streak after picking up his 5th submission win. This one came at 1:12 into round 1; via armbar over MORGAN SICKENGER.